Video: Navy relieves commander over “raunchy videos”

posted at 12:15 pm on January 4, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

The Navy has decided to relieve Commander Owen Honors of his command of the USS Enterprise as a result of the “raunchy videos” shot as a gag when Honors was the executive officer of the carrier in 2006 and 2007. Honors, a former Top Gun pilot and captain of the ship since 2009, will remain in the Navy but will be replaced immediately in order to keep the Enterprise on schedule for its deployment this month to the Middle East in support of the war in Afghanistan. CNN reports that the Pentagon is concerned over the “command climate” on the Enterprise, as well as other ships, and will probe why none of the senior officers brought this to anyone’s attention:

“Over the years I’ve gotten several complaints about inappropriate material during these videos, never to me personally but, gutlessly, through other channels,” Capt Honors says in the introduction to one video.

In the film the officer introduces a scene where two female sailors pretend to bathe together, saying “chicks in the shower” is his “favourite topic”.

In another scene, male sailors dressed in drag mimic masturbation. Other clips in the video show a man in drag and a mock rectal examination.

Navy Cmdr Chris Sims was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the videos “were not acceptable then and are not acceptable in today’s Navy”.

I suspect that we’ll hear defenses of Honors relying on warrior mentality and the need to bond with the crew, but this goes far enough beyond the boundaries of taste that a “you need me on that wall” moment won’t have much impact. Besides, a claim that the rigors of war requires a burlesque show might have a bit of a credibility issue. Obviously the Navy isn’t interested in defending this; they could have easily claimed that a relief of command would have unnecessarily delayed a wartime deployment. Instead, they appear to have practically broken a leg finding a replacement for Honors.

Let’s wish the new captain the best of luck in his new command, and hope he doesn’t need to cross the Equator on his first deployment.

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Life at sea in a combat vessel is by nature “uncomfortable,” so the comparison is lacking.

Otis B on January 4, 2011 at 6:01 PM

Unfortunately, in the context of sexual harassment law, comfort has nothing to do with physical comfort or the discomfort of serving in a ship at sea. It has to do with how the victim ‘feels’, or how the courts believe a possible victim might ‘feel’.

The trouble with lawyers is that they get so caught up in arguing about the application of rules and regulations that they end up missing the forest for the trees. I’m a Harvard Law educated lawyer who has been practising law for more than 30 years; and quite frankly, the technical legal discussion here disgusts me because the fact of the matter is that an outstanding, decorated, combat experienced Navy Captain is being punished for four year old videos made to lift the morale of his sailors. Left wing activists, gay rights activists and media leftists — all of whom have the American military in their crosshairs — are celebrating. Don’t kid yourself otherwise.

If there really was somebody under Captain Honors’s command who was offended (it’s unclear there was) and if you really feel the need to do so, reprimand; but then get on with having Captain Honors serving the country so well as he has in the past.

CAPT Honors bought me beer once. We were out in Gaeta inspecting the Mount Whitney in 2008. They did very well, even considering her unique situation being alone overseas and having a hybrid military/civilian crew. The last night there, after the inspection was over, he and about half the crew were at the bar across the street from the base there, celebrating their success, and he was BUYING.

The crew seemed to like him, and it was a bit unusual for a CO to do that – it’s the norm for leadership that senior to keep aloof socially.

the technical legal discussion here disgusts me because the fact of the matter is that an outstanding, decorated, combat experienced Navy Captain is being punished for four year old videos made to lift the morale of his sailors.

Phil Byler on January 4, 2011 at 6:12 PM

Not that it matters. You know as well as anyone that the guy is a goner and none of the rest of it matters.

Let’s not forget that this Obama crew is a seething and ruthless politically radical group. They are intent on radically transforming the entire nation, not just conducting an Administration that will one day be viewed in the context of historical continuity.

They want a huge break with the past, and on all levels.

One of the areas where on paper they have the most potential power, but where they see themselves as having been de facto weak, is with the military. At least since the Florida recount in 2000, people in uniform have justifiably viewed Democrats with a considerable level of skepticism. They were refusing to count their votes!

Even though he is the Commander in Chief, the President and his people reciprocally distrust those in the military, and, therefore, want to put in as many of their “trustees” in positions of power as they can to consolidate their power. That means if they find a way to unceremoniously bump Capt. Owen Honors aside, they’d do it in a heartbeat.

Someone in there found that way when they became aware of the clip, so it’s now, “Goodbye Captain, and watch the swinging doors on yer way out!” A great military officer with an exemplary career has just found himself under the Obama bus.

Do not think for a minute the White House somehow had nothing to do with this. I believe they had everything to do with it, and as I said before, I also believe it has a lot to do with the implementation of the post-DADT military policies.

They believe by trashing this guy in the press, the rest of the officer corps will take notice of what could happen to them for merely putting together a couple of wise-cracking skits, clearly meant to bolster the morale of the 5 to 6 thousand troops on shipboard! Imagine what would happen if you expressed concerns over a proposed gay-rights policy? Who isn’t potentially vulnerable under the circumstances? So, it serves a few purposes for the Obama crowd. They’re probably slapping “high-fives” and calling it a “win-win” for themselves.

But, of course, even that isn’t enough for them! Now they’re going to conduct a complete investigation of the entire officer corps that was on board during those years . . . ostensibly to find out who knew about the skits (everyone, including the Old Man) and why they didn’t report it!

Didn’t report WHAT? That, as the XO, Capt. Honors was helping to maintain morale amongst the crew through exercising his leadership?

If they can actually begin to turn that group of officers one against another over absolutely nothing — and this is absolutely nothing — who would doubt that Barack Obama and this radical crew of his will begin a process of sowing discord throughout the military, which would to a great degree hobble their effectiveness going forward.

Different times, the cadence songs at Ft. Dix were all downright pornographic!

Trafalgar on January 4, 2011 at 6:34 PM

Heh. I enlisted in ’86 for three years, and took Basic at Fort Bliss. Signed up for an REMF MOS, went to Fort Sam Houston for AIT, in a mixed company.

Platoon Sergeant at AIF (female) was looking for someone to call cadence for those few times when we actually marched anywhere, one of the guys from my Basic company stepped forward… and quickly realized that the jodies he knew were completely inappropriate for the mixed company.

This Captain is the sacrificial lamb for the pro-homosexual crowd and they are sending a message to the military and the American population as well, and this message is: Don’t think that your freedom of speech or freedom of religion or any other freedom you want to hold up will protect you if you make fun of or say that you are against this this kind of behavior. The Democrats and Progressives have made promises to the homosexuals community and they pay their debts; Well at least ones that don’t actually entail cutting spending or taxes.

I’m shocked, shocked to find raunchy behavior on a naval vessel. Not so sure it’s appropriate activity for an XO, but pretty sure about the timing. Sucks eggs. This is the first post-DADT casualty. There will be more.

Mark my words, in a few weeks or months, they’ll take down a ground commander who “condoned” his soldiers placing centerfolds or other “raunchy” pictures next to the doors and hatches of their fighting vehicles. Perhaps there will even be video of said commander himself kissing his hand and tapping the photo before stepping out into a firefight.

There will be “outrage” and indignation, then another head will roll.

Many good man’s career are about to be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.

Is it any wonder with all the PC crap in our political wing of Washington DC that this man, obviously the most qualified man to lead us if war breaks out on the high sea, is taken out. He is too good for the sh#t that comprises our media, political establishment and dying culture. Sorry Ed he should stay. Our country is in serious trouble, not from him, but from progressive liberalism, gay activists and corrupt media.

by trashing this guy in the press, the rest of the officer corps will take notice of what could happen to them

Trochilus on January 4, 2011 at 6:23 PM
Yeah, well don’t write them all off just yet.

Otis B on January 4, 2011 at 6:33 PM

Hell, I wasn’t writing them off!

By quoting only a portion of my sentence you completely changed its meaning . . . what I actually said (emphasis added) was:

“They believe by trashing this guy in the press, the rest of the officer corps will take notice of what could happen to them for merely putting together a couple of wise-cracking skits, clearly meant to bolster the morale of the 5 to 6 thousand troops on shipboard!”

I personally think that in the long run the Obama crowd is attempting to bite off way, way more than they can chew. This was a cynical power tactic employed by them as a lead-in to the new PC policies that they’ll be imposing on the services post-DADT repeal. If they should succeed in the short run in turning officer against officer, they could indeed do some damage to the services. But the right amount of exposure can very quickly make it backfire on them.

You earn the respect of the military! You don’t demand it, or try to intimidate troops into kowtowing.

My opinion — “taking out” Owen Honors was is a big mistake on their part! It just needs to be publicly exposed for exactly what it was. I do think, however that they believe they just won a big round by undercutting the Capt.

Let ‘em think it. In the long run, they simply have no idea at all who they are now messing with!

Our enemies are laughing their ass off as they watch the US depose proven combat commanders at the behest of leftist politically correct cowards that don’t have the cojones to wear the uniform into battle. I$lamist jihadists will have no problem conquering the PC jellyfish that infest the pentagon these days. America is doomed as long as we allow these chicken-$hit morons to subvert our fighting forces.

Honers pissed someone off, somewhere down the line and that someone released the videos knowing what they would do at just the right time to take him down. Such things have been done before and will be done again.

I wonder if the new skipper of the Enterprise is one of the newly honored “out of the closet” crew. It would certainly make sense, because this is a very rare occasion when a CDR is commanding an aircraft carrier. CDR’s usually take the reigns of battleships and cruisers, but carrier’s are typically captains, or at minimum captain select.

I’d like to see a skit of this CDR joyfully jumping out of a closet pleading “pick me, pick me!”…

Speaking as a VietNam Era Navy veteran who served onboard the U.S. S. Forrestal, I don’t care how much the Enterprise’s crew loves Owen Honors. What he did was completely beyond reprehensible, it was totally disgraceful, and it was hardly a morale booster by any stretch of the imagination, regardless of how much Honors or the crew says it was.

It makes no difference how this thing got out into the public, though I think the Virginia-Pilot should be applauded for doing so. What does matter is that Owen Honors disgraced his position as Captain of that ship, not to mention the officer’s uniform he wears and frankly, he should be brought before a court-martial, stripped of his officer status and dishonorably discharged with no pension or benefits.

I mean, what the heck was going through his head when he did this insanity?!!!! Seriously!

Just a quick question…Did you cross the Equator during your time on Forrestal? How did that experience differ in what is being done here? Just curious, cause I have several Navy men in my family who said that was a pretty raunchy production…and this was when the ships were all men, no ladies at all.

As a retired naval officer all I can say about this one is that it is total “BS”. It is also totally timed to try to blunt some of the criticism of the repeal of DADT. And now it seems we have a witch hunt to implicate other personnel and carry the thing even further.

The timing . . . suddenly surfacing just a few weeks after the DADT repeal . . . should indeed be the story at this point. But this AP rubbish is instead completely oriented toward questions about who in the brass might have known about the so-called scandalous videos, and when. Mullen, among others, is obviously in their nasty little cross-hairs.

They obviously want a media circus, with their vague aspersions aimed at all of the Navy’s top brass. They want blood to flow!

The story actually contains one sentence suggesting that the AP reporters tried to question every senior Naval officer in sight: “No leaders in senior posts at the Pentagon and in the Navy could explain why, if Honors’ conduct was so questionable, he was promoted after the videos aired.”

Unbelievably, the story then goes on to state that “misbehavior” is nothing new to the US armed services.

From the story:

“The lewd videos were far from the first time that U.S. troops have been disciplined for misbehaving.”

Talk about a stretch! Then they gratuitously cite as “proof” of this, the nearly twenty year-old Tailhook scandal, the Iraq War Abu Ghraib incidents, and even an incident where a Marine threw a puppy off a cliff in Iraq . . . as if any of those were in any way remotely comparable or related to what was obviously a few harmless skits intended to boost morale for the crew of the USS Enterprise!

The story actually reads like a spittle-laden offering from one of our basement-dwelling lefty haters!

. . . [Capt. Owen Honors disgraced his position as Captain of that ship, not to mention the officer’s uniform he wears and frankly, he should be brought before a court-martial, stripped of his officer status and dishonorably discharged with no pension or benefits.

I mean, what the heck was going through his head when he did this insanity?!!!! Seriously!

pilamaye on January 5, 2011 at 1:54 PM

.

I too served in the military of the United States during Viet-Nam, though in the Army . . . not the Navy.

But I do count a number of former Navy personnel among my friends to this day, along with a few “former active duty” Marines.

Not one single troop I know who ever wore the uniform of the United States — including, as I said, several Navy officers and enlisted men — agrees in any respect whatsoever with what I think are your shockingly out of line views.

Not one. Not even close!

The man was trying to keep up unit morale, for crying out loud! Now, it would be one thing for you to characterize the skits as a little bit over the top. Some people hold that view, though not me — but you have publicly called for him to be court-martialed, stripped of his commission and dishonorably discharged!

As a retired naval officer all I can say about this one is that it is total “BS”. It is also totally timed to try to blunt some of the criticism of the repeal of DADT. And now it seems we have a witch hunt to implicate other personnel and carry the thing even further.

duff65 on January 5, 2011 at 3:13 PM

I was writing my prior comment when you posted your far more succinct response, or I would have cited it approvingly above.

See, and I always thought they were supposed to be officers and gentlemen. There’s even a national law that says they are. This just doesn’t seem… gentlemanly. Then again, I guess we’re living in a time when being a gentleman gets someone branded a “wuss.”

No, it’s the vile back-stabbing, prissy attitude of seeking the destruction of a true military hero’s entire career of service to our nation, over the totally out-of-context public rehashing of some harmless four year old clips of on-board skits, ones clearly meant only to bolster the morale of his crew.

THAT’S what gets you branded as a wuss.

No one brought this up publicly for four years, even though the skits were played at the time for several thousand members of the crew, because they recognized it was all meant in fun.

Public outcry, petitions, etc. won’t do a thing for CAPT Honors. The brass have publicly ended his career (even if the public doesn’t recognize that removing him was more than just removing him from his command). They have also demonstrated that they will always cave to the screaming and whining few, rather than show any integrity or spine.

Public outcry, petitions, etc. won’t do a thing for CAPT Honors. The brass have publicly ended his career (even if the public doesn’t recognize that removing him was more than just removing him from his command). They have also demonstrated that they will always cave to the screaming and whining few, rather than show any integrity or spine.

DrMagnolias on January 6, 2011 at 4:22 AM

.
All true, which is pretty sad since he was destined to make Admiral. The only good that can come of this now is that they don’t take anything from him, and allow him to retire as a captain. He’ll make more money on the outside anyway…

Public outcry, petitions, etc. won’t do a thing for CAPT Honors.
. . . .DrMagnolias on January 6, 2011 at 4:22 AM

and

All true, which is pretty sad since he was destined to make Admiral.
. . . .stacman on January 6, 2011 at 11:32 AM

Agreed. But that didn’t stop me from signing it, and it will certainly not stop me from publicly defending him from those jerks who commenter bannedbyhuffpo on January 4, 2011 at 11:33 PM, above, accurately tagged “the PC jellyfish.” Capt. Honors served our country proudly and damned well for many, many years. I figure I at least owe the man that much!

Got to disagree with Ed on this one. Anyone who as spent a few weeks on board ship was likely subjected to much worse than anything in the videos. I thought they were pretty entertaining and I suspect 98% of the crew did to. BTW, is the fellow who was Captain of the vessel at the time being disciplined also? He is ultimately responsible for the videos as they occurred under his command.